Scotty Walden Named Assistant Football Coach

March 8, 2017

HATTIESBURG, Miss. – Southern Miss football coach Jay Hopson announced today the hiring of Scotty Walden as assistant football coach and will coach the inside wide receivers.

Walden comes to Southern Miss after spending a season as the head football coach at Division III East Texas Baptist University. He had the distinction of being the youngest head coach at a NCAA school. The Tigers finished at 7-3 a season ago. ETBU also led the country in scoring offense at 49.9 points per game, while finishing second in total offense (564.3 yards per game) and sixth in passing offense (365.3 yards per game).

“We are pleased to have Scotty join our staff and become a Golden Eagle,” said Hopson. “He comes highly recommended for this position and his accomplishments over his career have been very impressive. He will be a great addition to our staff.”

Walden took as head coach at ETBU after serving three years as the school’s offensive coordinator.
As an assistant, the Tigers won the 2015 American Southwest Conference championship. It was the first ASC championship for ETBU since 2003. His offense produced four players that were named All-ASC first-team and a pair went on to earn D3football.com All-Region awards. In addition, he produced two All-Americans who were named to the USA Football Network All-American team.

Having a large presence in the offensive world, Walden has been able to speak to other coaches about his offense. In summer 2015, he was a special speaker at the Spread Offense Football Clinic in Chicago, Illinois. His first national speaking engagement came in 2012 when he was a special speaker at the Nike Coach of the Year clinic in Dallas, Texas.

In his first three years as the offensive coordinator Walden’s offense had re-written ETBU’s record book for individual, single game, and season records while being nationally known for passing and scoring. In his time as an assistant, a total of 26 combined individual and team records were broken. He produced four 1,000 yard receivers, two 1,000 yard rusher and one Gagliardi Trophy semi-finalist in Josh Warbington. His offense was consistently been one of the top offenses in NCAA Division III in and in 2014 finished ranked first in total passing offense (368.1 ypg), second in total offense (566.1 ypg) and 11th in scoring offense (42.3 ppg).

Walden came to ETBU after being the offensive coordinator at Sul Ross State in 2012. It was Walden’s first year as a coach and offensive coordinator and his offense led all of NCAA averaging 581.9 yards per game and 48.8 points per game. His offense produced two D3Football.com All-Americans and six All-ASC products. Sul Ross State broke 16 overall offensive school records with two of them being most offensive yards in a game (800) and points in a game (75).

Because of his success in his first year as an offensive coordinator, Walden had the chance to coach the quarterbacks at the National Bowl in December 2012 in which two of his players played in. He has also coached at the Air It Out Passing Camp from 2009 to 2011.

A NCAA Division III product, Walden was the starting quarterback at Dordt College (2008) and Sul Ross State University (2011). In his senior season (2011) he was the team captain and was given the Leadership award. He was awarded All-ASC academic awards twice and started his freshman season at Dordt College. During his time at Hardin-Simmons (2009-10), he played both as a quarterback and defensive back.

He graduated Magna Cum Laude from Sul Ross State in 2012 with a bachelor’s degree in history. He made the dean’s list in 2011 and 2012 along with being inducted into the Phi Alpha Theta National History Honor Society. He, and wife, Callie, were married in July 2014.

Walden replaces John Wozniak, who took an assistant coach position at Oklahoma State.

“I am truly blessed and honored to be here at Southern Miss,” Walden said. “The pride and tradition of USM is second to none and I’m excited to be here.”